Chilly, rainy weather dampens Aquapalooza

Mother Nature tossed a mess into the second annual Aquapalooza concert festival on Lake St. Clair Saturday, but about 1,000 people, the hardiest of the Macomb County boating community, showed up anyway to rock with a series of bands playing from a barge in Belvidere Bay.

Organizers had hoped that the 2-day event, which continues today, would prove to be the largest on-the-water concert in the nation, with more than 5,000 boats and in excess of 10,000 people attending. But the unseasonably cool weather and a mid-afternoon heavy downpour put a damper on the Day One concert. Nonetheless, the Jody Raffoul Band played through the storm, with the puddle on the drummer’s snare producing a splash with each hit. The Leamington, Ontario, group improvised as the raindrops fell, playing Eric Clapton’s “Let It Rain” for the crowd. A few dozen concertgoers remained in front of the stage in waist-deep water despite the pouring rain and winds.

“We’re Michiganders, we’re used to this,” said Eric Foster, manager of the host Belle Maer Harbor. “But it is disappointing that we don’t have a nice, sunny day.”

The unique aspect of Aquapalooza is that access to the concert is only available by water, not by car. The stage sits on a barge that is located a short distance from the marina’s shoreline.

Sunday’s weather is expected to be a bit more charitable, with cloudy skies, a high temperature of 69 and only a 30 percent chance of showers.

Aquapalooza is held on the lakefront just north of Metro Beach and the mouth of the Clinton River. A DJ and four bands, headlined by Kaleido, will be playing Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Foster said he sees the event growing each year, in part due to support from the Jody Raffoul Band and other Canadians. The Lake St. Clair Tourism Initiative’s nine-member board, which plays a key role in supporting the festival, recently welcomed Joy Sim of a Chatham-Kent, Ontario, business group as their newest member.